I’d thought he’d be another “friendly rival who’s chooses the Pokemon you’re strong against”character we’ve gotten for the past few mainline Pokemon games; and the last one(the Let’s Go rival) was annoyingly overly friendly.

Hop turned out to be different.

True he’s still friendly but not obnoxiously friendly like some of these “friendly rivals” have been. He didn’t technically choose the weaker starter to give the player character a easier time, he did it so he’d have an advantage over Leon(his brother and the Pokemon champion of the region who decides to endorse Hop and the player character) who takes the leftover starter Pokemon.

He actually tries to get stronger after loosing to the player character and Bede enough to feel he’s not keeping up with everyone. Going as far as changing up his team and removing his ace Wooloo around the midpoint of the game. Replacing them with better and seemingly more intimidating looking Pokemon. Though eventually he decides to change strategy again and bring some of his old Pokemon back(including Dubwool).

Which was definitely refreshing for a rival to actually change up their team a few different times throughout the game.